CBH - I'm not sure how many Barnes bullet shooters we have around here. Barnes for years tried to solve the friction issue. I think Barnes has gotten close. They even used a blue coating for awhile. If you overloaded a standard Barnes even a little, 3 shots and you could fry an egg on your barrel because it got so hot from friction. I'm not so different than you. For hunting this year despite all the noise around here, I will be hunting deer with the 118 gr HHT in the 6.5 Creedmoor. If I was a true speed freak, I would drop down to the 80 or 85 grain. I still have a couple of powders to try to settle on my final load. That load will be based more on accuracy than ultimate speed.